A LECTURE BY THE LATE MAESTRO DAVID P. KYLE:
Maestro David Kyle
Those sounds which seem to ring the most are usually the best. Those which seem the roundest are usually the best. Those which seem to resonate are usually the best. Those which seem to echo are usually the best. So listen out into the theatre and see if they are echoing, and if they are round, and they are resonant. Connect your notes and don’t be afraid.
There are two kinds of stars. There are “stars” and there are “superstars.” The star no matter how he tries he just can’t seem to become a superstar. He’s great, great, great, great, but along comes a Caruso, or a Lanza, or a Gigli, and he can’t quite get over the hurdle. It’s because of one simple thing. The star sings, and when he’s singing he listens to himself; and while he’s listening he shapes it; and he opinionates it; and he shapes it around. If it isn’t round enough he rounds it more. And that sounds logical doesn’t it? It’s wrong! The superstar pictures the sound and knows what he wants to hear before he makes it!
Singing is more the concept than anything. If we’ve got the right idea, then the muscles as they train more and more they become like a reflex and the reflexes respond to the image. Even if you’re trained beautifully and your image is a fear that you haven’t got high notes and it’ll never get there the reflexes won’t respond no matter how well trained you are. The epitome of it is you can say singing is absolutely mental. In the process of getting to realize that you have to take a lot of physical steps before you begin to see it, but it is true!
The singer has to be in the consciousness and the mood. How does one establish a consciousness and a mood? You tend to become as you act. So if you pretend and try to get your feelings to act as you think they would act if you were doing it, then you’re getting in the consciousness. But if our consciousness is only on body and physical things then our mind is trapped in matter. And that is disaster and death!
When a ballet dancer is spinning around and around he has to find a spot way out there at the back of the theatre. And with his imagination’s eye he has to see that spot. Every time he spins around he’s got to see that spot. If he doesn’t he loses his sense of balance. So singers like Pavarotti and those singers at the Met have to picture a spot way out at the back of the auditorium and mentally every sound soft or loud goes right there.
Never tell a singer he’s sharp or flat. Because if you tell them they’re flat they try to make it sharp. If you tell them sharp then they try to make it flat, and that spoils it too. The best thing to do is to tell the singer he’s out of tune because then he has to listen. Because it’s his lack of listening that causes it.
It’s the subconscious that grows the voice. The subconscious mind thrives on praise. So when you’re singing well, tell it so! Just like the soul thrives on beauty, the subconscious thrives on praise. And the whole nervous system, if you put doubt to it, it cringes. Confidence is to “confide” in yourself. So people that haven’t confidence have confided in themselves all the time that they think they haven’t got it. They keep confiding to their inner self doubts and fears and so the poor little thing in there just cringes. But you shouldn’t confide in it telling it you’re doing great when it isn’t! There’s a difference. But for every bit of improvement, every bit of flowing ness, every bit of beauty, you give it full recognition.
The voice resonates in different areas of the body. The lower and middle notes are (in the chest). As we start getting further up the registers of the voice, then the sound begins to go into different areas, into the head. As it goes further and further and further and further and further and further (up into the head) to the performer (you) it begins to sound like its getting thinner and thinner and thinner and thinner and thinner until it almost becomes almost inaudible to you because the auditory nerves are located (at the ears) and they are used to hearing only our speech and lower areas. When it begins to bypass then our hearing is not aware of the overtones. Since we are not aware of it we try to save ourselves and pull it down where we can hear it, and there comes the fight. Now as the singer trusts it more and more and more and he gets into those areas, then little by little as he trusts them he begins to gain the awareness of those overtones. You can’t learn them; you have to become aware of them. Much like suppose a man was a coal miner and he worked under ground eight, ten, twelve hours a day and then went home and worked and worked and then one day he went to a concert hall and heard a violinist play. If he’s not used to hearing it, then to him the violin is just a scratch box. It’s nothing but noise and distortion. It’s not that he doesn’t have the hearing, but his hearing is not aware of the overtones.
It’s very much like, for instance in Carnegie Hall when you stand there to sing, and the singer performing doesn’t hardly hear himself. The sound all leaves and goes way out there and then it comes back almost like remote control. The singer, because he has the microphone he holds it there, because he thinks the louder he hears it the better it must be doing. That is not true. More times than not, that which is smallest to you is biggest to your listener, and that which is biggest to you is smallest to your listener. It’s almost like lighting. If you stand on the stage and the flood lights are all down on top of you the lights are bright, bright. But on the other hand if it’s a spotlight it’s small here but the further you get away from it (if it is projected right) the wider the picture, so small to you and big out there. But because we are self conscious, and we’re listening inside of ourselves and we’re locked up inside ourselves we hold everything here thinking, “Well that’s good, that’s good” but it’s all anchored. Let it leave like that.
It’s not the volume that I’m talking about. I’m talking about the overtones, the resonance, the projection. Otherwise it’s just the same as the violinist who thinks the harder he saws on the strings the more sound he is getting. That’s not the idea. He shouldn’t be listening with this ear. He should be listening out here and hear his sound spinning way out in the hall.
High notes are very much like a ballet dancer learning to spin on his toes. You have to coach him, instruct him. Then when he gets his sense of equilibrium and balance then he’s got it. It isn’t something he learns, he discovers it. And he begins to see it, and then it is his. But he can’t get home just by stretching on his toes and trying to stand on his toes or he’ll break his foot.
In other words, no matter who the singer is, Geoff Tate or Terry Young or any of those singers, at least 75-80% of their practice should be in the lower registers and then maybe 15-20% in the other. The tree does not depend on the highest branches, it depends on its roots. But all the singers want all the branches but they don’t want to build the roots, but they do!
Any interferences of any sort, don’t ever be afraid of them, be glad for them, because that’s the only way you learn. If everything goes smooth all the time what kind of an experienced singer are we going to be? The wonderful thing is that each thing you get over, as a rule, you don’t have to face those things again.
An actor in control of his own attitudes is in control of the part, the play, and the audience. A singer in control of his own attitudes is in control of his voice, the performance, and the audience. An individual in control of his own attitudes is in control of his own life.
We always start with the humming because we are trying to get the breath which is the support, the voice which is the noise maker, and the resonance to integrate.
The less body conscious the singer is the better, listen to the buzz of the tone, listen to the resonance, listen to the quality. Don’t keep trying to see how it feels in the throat, and how it feels in the mouth, and how it feels in there. That’s your mind stuck in your body. Try to get your mind right out of your body and put it on the qualities of the sound.
Say “Sing out,” “Ring them bells,” “Mama makes ice cream many times,” “Spring is coming in England.” Those are your models for your speech.
When we have allergies and tonsillitis problems and pharyngitus problems then our nervous system and our muscular system become educated to the problem. Long after the problems are cleared up the habits of the muscular system and the nervous system remember. And in remembering they recreate similar symptoms, until we are confused whether we have gotten rid of the original allergies or not. When we know this, we are patient, and as long as we do what is right in our singing and our habits then the old way will gradually fade away. “We may be done with the past, but the past is not done with us.” As you re-educate and keep yourself on the right level then little by little the mind will forget, and then we will say we are cured!
What alters it is not trying to correct the negative. That’s where it’s wrong. The affirmative position automatically erases the negation. Suppose a person had a lawn and the lawn was full of clover, which are weeds, and the fellow said, “I’m going to tear up all those weeds” (the negation) “out of the lawn.” He goes out there and he starts pulling the clover out, and pulling it out, and getting rid of it. He feels great, he’s getting rid of all of the negatives! Then when he gets half way through the job and looks back the clover is more! It’s more! And more! The harder he tries to clear the negation out the more negatives he gets! The world would like to have us thinking if you have negation (and we all have it in one form or another) all you have to do is kick it out. You can’t kick it out. What do you do? Feed the grass! That’s the positive. Keep feeding the grass, and it will push the other out. Light dispels darkness. So when you find yourself faced with these little suggestions tell yourself, “I know that I’m better,” “I know that I’m cured,” “I know that it’s improved,” because then you are watering the grass. I don’t say that there are not weeds there. But handling the weeds will only give you more weeds.
The convex of what we said earlier is also true. When you’ve learned something well and you’ve been trained right that never slips. You never lose it. It’s like a person that has perfect manners, they may move away from those manners for two or three years, but when they are back in the right atmosphere it is right there.
Ninety percent of the things that interfere are NOT noticeable to your audience, so don’t start getting a conscience. If everyone on stage bothered with everything that happened to them they would all have a heart attack before the day was over.
About the m-i-m-e-m-a-m-o-m-u-m w/counting 7, 9, 11, 15, and 21 exercise, the most complete of all the exercises. If I could do only one vocal exercise it would be that one, because it entails everything. There’s no way to strain the throat; no way to strain the voice. Whatever strain is all upon the abdomen, the diaphragm, the intercostals muscles. There’s no way to strain the throat.
Trust it, it will be there. I wouldn’t assign something to you (that you could not do). I don’t experiment. I don’t have to experiment. In other words, if I assign a note that means it is in your voice. You have to trust that. I don’t say to myself “Well, I’ll try another one and see if it’s there.” I know that it’s there or I wouldn’t be working at it.
If it doesn’t come the first time or the second, don’t do it over and over again. Otherwise, the human mind has a habit of always remembering the disaster, and when we go for it we picture the disaster and then it keeps making it worse. If it doesn’t come, then just wipe the brain clean, go as far as it’s comfortable and then try the next one. If it doesn’t come right then and there then try again later in the day.
I’ve explained the principal of how muscles are developed? Like a long distance runner, suppose he is used to running six miles a day. Then one day he should force himself to run seven miles. Then after doing that he shouldn’t run for two days. The next day he should run, but he should run the same seven miles, not six again. Because when he runs the seven that’s a strain and it causes a deterioration of the cells in the muscles. After that assault the body will build up a resistance in case of another assault. If you rest it for two days the resistance will get strong enough. However, you have to do the same thing so it will stay there. Supposing the first day you ran the seven miles, that’s deterioration. The next day you run the same seven miles, that would be deterioration on top of deterioration, and then it’s a downhill procedure. That very basic principal runs through all the things we do vocally or muscularly in any way. So all assaults are not bad as long as we take the time afterwards to let the resistence build up to that.
Imagination is the key to it all. The reflexes respond to the image. Picture you are in Carnegie Hall or the Paramount. Ignore the rest.
In my early days of studying, very early days, I used to leave my teachers studio and I used to sit on the hydrant a half a block from the studio. I couldn’t move! Almost week in and week out he used to say in the middle of the lesson “Aren’t you tired?” and I’d shake my head.
The subconscious mind of man, the emotions, and his spirit THRIVE on appreciation, compliments, and affirmations. They CRINGE under criticism, doubt, fear, and mistrust. Like if you’re singing wonderful and I tell you you’re singing wonderful and you say “but I could do better,” the “I could do better” makes it cringe.
I have more trouble with people’s names. I’m much better, I’ve improved. See, for years and years I had three secretaries and Mr. Miller. They handled everything for me. When I used to lecture in Carnegie or conduct and all that, one of them would stand on my right or my left and people would come up and they’d whisper “this is Ron Thompson,” and I’d say “Hi, Ron!” like a politician you know. I didn’t even bother to try to remember people’s names. You see I always had prompters with me every day. In my studios I used to handle two thousand pupils a week at least! I used to have classes of two or three hundred in a class. I used to teach from six or seven in the morning ‘til twelve or two the next morning, every day of the week. I had phones all over the place. They used to set the classes up like I’d have a class here, and then I’d have an interview in the other office, like a doctor going from one room to another. All enterprises have management systems. This was all my own. It was marvelous for 32 years. What a setup! When I tell people I’m retired they don’t know what I’m talking about. This is just lovely! What I’m trying to say is, I’m not trying to be a big-wig; I forfeited my memory for names, you see, because I just gave up. I didn’t realize that I gave up. I didn’t even try. I never wrote anything, I never even signed my name for about twenty, twenty-five, or thirty years. So when I gave all that up I was quite set back! I didn’t realize, I had gained so much, and on the other hand lost certain little things which were quite amazing.
Maestro Kyle passed on Saturday, November 27th of 2004
Maestro David P. Kyle & Robert Lunte
